Naruto: the Six Paths
by WRoosterdf
Summary: Naruto is the PC in a world filled with NPC's. This is his Campaign setting. He'll get loot, get exp, beat the big bad evil guy and romance his female companion. System completely original, but expect tabletop rpg logic. Current Arc: The Player Guide. Rating may change. Pairing undecided. No Yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto**

**AN:Hello everyone! This is my first attempt at a story ever. Not only would I appreciate any tips you want to share about my writing, I would also love to hear any positive encouragement you might have. Spread the word. I would love to keep going, but I can only do that if I know what you like. Okay? Okay! Although getting flamed would mean I have people that care about the story so much, that they take the time to be mad about something they didn't like...**

* * *

Naruto was dead. Again. It was his 20th time actually.

He awoke in what could only be called the stereotypical white room. Not too big, not too small, with two white chairs, and a white table.

Everywhere was white. Even his t-shirt and pants now that he got a chance to look around. Even the clothes on the girl opposite of him.

Except for her brown hair everywhere was white.

"Hi. So how was it? Enjoyed yourself in there?" Asked the girl. "It was alright. No real conflict, nothing special, just living life. I almost regret asking for a vacation." He replied with a grin. "Oh? Is that so?" She smirked, and looked him straight in the eye. "Then how about we return to where it all began?"

He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms in front of his chest, looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes.

Then his mind started to wander. Going back to where it all began, huh? He could find some answers, or change things he wanted to change, do things he always wanted, be who he wanted. There wouldn't be anything he couldn't do. Because you see, Naruto became a player in a game, and the opposite of him sat his game master. Or God. Whatever you wanted to call her. Because of some twist of fate the woman opposite of him attained god-like power, and he was there when it happened.

She could create entire worlds where he could become the hero, the player character. She would create the world and the story, and he would inhabit that world. That was the way things worked now, and he came to accept that. Truly a world even beyond what Madara could ever hope to achieve. Unlike Infinite Tsukuyomi this power to be god was Real. Sure, reliving his life, being truly immortal in a world without consequence would break lesser men, but not Naruto. There was some angst at first, but then He came to accept the reality that he was in, what he was, and how things worked. It's a long story, anyway.

He sighed, and looked back at the girl. "Alright Jackie, let's do this thing!" He raised his voice as he shouted the last part. Good old Naruto. Truly his enthusiasm was limitless. The girl smiled at him and narrowed her eyes as she tilted her head to her right.

"Should be fun. Especially after the last world. I hoped to make a sandbox where I would only guide the evolution a little so that evolution happened. Observing it all was hilarious." She chuckled a little as she thought about all the amusing things that happened.

Naruto also chuckled "Yeah. So many religions, and not one of them thought that God was a woman." He laughed softly. If only they knew.

"Or that you became a mangaka that made a manga series based on you." She reminded him.

"Heh. I actually forgot a lot about that place, or my adventures. Hell, the place I portrayed doesn't even make sense now that I think about it." He wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that his first world was also created by some divine being for their amusement. Hell he wouldn't be surprised if someone from the worlds Jackie created ascended to godhood unknowingly to them and this was just how gods reproduced themselves.

"You're right. What I have in mind would explain a lot of things that didn't make sense, while changing little." She unknowingly put an end to his insane theories.

"What do you have in mind?" He asked. "Ok, how about this: I'll take the base world, create tabletop RPG rules that apply to the supernatural, and make everyone aware of them." He didn't really understand. It was Naruto after all "So, like what?" He stared at her blankly, and she rolled her eyes. "What I mean is, that unlike any other worlds we had, where you could be like an RPG character, this time I'll make everyone aware that they can do this. That they have stats, and skills. Flaws and Perks." She explained. He started to get it "Ah! I see! You know that would actually explain so much stuff. The D ranks? Exp grinding. Teams? Balanced for exp sharing vs. difficulty of missions. The lack of high powered people, and an absolute overabundance of cannon fodder? That's the efficient way of doing things. Kicking ass as a requirement for leadership? Duh! A lot of things would make sense if you did that!" He exclaimed, his excitement rising.

"I see you're starting to get what I mean" She smiled at him, then adopted a more serious look and continued "Ok, the only thing I'll for now is that there was Sage of the six paths, yes, but he not only gave the world chakra, he gave them RPG rules along with it. Anyone who unlocks chakra, also unlocks their character sheet, and from then on they become a lvl 1 character. Anyone can unlock chakra at eleven years old with a bit of training, those who unlock it earlier are really special and will definitely become high leveled, while those who unlock it in later years will have hard time catching up to their peers"

He thought for a second before replying "That would definitely explain prodigies, and amount of average ninjas we had back in the day. I mean, 9 graduates taken under the wing of incredible ninjas each year? Then where did the thousands of chuunin pop out of? The explanation would be that they did it on their own. As well as not having as good of an access to missions with good exp rewards."

She started to outright grin at him "Yeah! You're getting into it Naruto! You'll be owning that place in no time at all" He grinned in response "What can I say? We've been doing it for a long time."

She smiled softly this time while her thoughts turned nostalgic for a moment, and her eyes dropped down to the table "We have, haven't we?" Then she looked back to him, and exclaimed louder this time "Alright! Now that we know the setting, what about your character? I don't really want to make you a jinchuuriki, or the child of prophecy, but I need someone for the first, and it would be better if you remained the second, so what do you want to do?"

He thought for a bit and rubbed his chin with his hand. "Hmmm. I think I have an idea. I know what you mean about being a jinchuuriki. It's not only a pain in the ass being one, but when you really get into it you become unstoppable, especially the Kyuubi, not to mention hundreds of other problems." he nodded and started to explain what he had in mind "I still want to be born Uzumaki Naruto jinchuuriki of Kyuubi, but we're going to change so much about this backstory that it'll become unrecognizable. So listen closely ok? I was born on October 10th along with my twin sister Naruko. My father the 4th Hokage found a slightly different seal that didn't require him to die, and split the kyuubi up into two parts, mine is sealed so tightly that it doesn't give me any advantages, while giving my sister the other more accessible part. After all Mito sealed the kyuubi first, she did it alone, and didn't drop dead. Hell she was an adult at the time, while bijuu are sealed into children nowadays. Anyway, to protect us, we're placed into orphanage, but I'm stolen away by a man. The genius of his plan however was to use Tsunade's transformation technique on me, and place me back into the orphanage during the confusion, under a different name Torune Uzukima. This man was my grandfather. Years later I find out the truth, and enter the ninja academy. So how do you like it?"

She thought about all the aspects of the background, what she'll change once he starts while keeping his backstory to the letter. He actually gave her a lot to work with. She actually liked it a lot. "Very good, but I have to ask, why name yourself Torune Uzukima? Doesn't it mean tornado? And your last name doesn't even mean anything"

He smirked "That's the brilliance of the name!" He exclaimed while grinning like he was doing the 'nice guy pose' "Naruto was supposed to mean maelstrom, but I only get called fishcake. I'm tired of that, and this names sounds badass, and just like Tobi is an anagram of Obito, Torune Uzukima is an anagram of Naruto Uzumaki! It's brilliant if you ask me!" She sweatdropped. Those weren't anagrams. Close enough though, it is Naruto after all that came up with it. It was definitely better than Superninja destroyer of worlds, because she would always allow him to name himself what he wants, that was the only thing she gave him 100% freedom in. Disaster definitely averted. It was a close call though. "I see. I'll allow it, and because this backstory allows me to take away your Kyuubi chakra, and any clan benefits you might have gotten I'll trade you some other stuff for them. Giving up being a jinchuuriki is a worth a lot. Heck I'll even let you design a bloodline if you want."

His eyes widened "Really? Cool! I always wanted one. Now I'll show that bastard Sasuke!"

After finalizing everything and makings sure nothing was overlooked Jackie snapped her fingers and Naruto lost consciousness.

* * *

**And there you have it! Who is Jackie? How is this happening? How did Naruto change as a person? What is on Naruto's character sheet? How does the system work? How would the world work under those rules? Find out next on Shinobi: the Six Paths. **

**Arc 1:The Player Guide**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**AN: Thank you everyone. For a first take at writing I'd say it was a massive success. 100 views since I posted the story, so here's the next chapter. I'll probably update pretty rapidly this week, so please don't be annoyed with daily updates okay? Enjoy!**

**theIrishWriter: Thank you! I hope this chapter will be to your liking.**

**Solomon07: I hope you're just as excited about what I'm planning for the future as I am. Horrible first attempts at written comedy. Mystery. Intrigue. Plot holes. What story doesn't have them, just don't think too hard. Next chapter would be named "worldbuilding" if I could figure out how to name my chapters in the interface**

* * *

When Naruto woke up he was extremely disoriented.

Getting a new body never got easier for him. Nothing seemed wrong at first glance. He examined his surroundings first, then himself second. He was sitting on his favorite swing in front of the academy. So far so good.

He himself seemed to be a normal eleven year old, if a bit healthier than he remembered being as Naruto at the same age. He walked over to the nearest window to take a look at himself. His whiskers were gone. That outright shocked him. He had them in most of his incarnations, so not having them, when he knew for a fact that he was born with them was disturbing. Second thing, his hair was dyed. He was sure he was a natural blonde, but he saw purple haired boy of all things looking back at him with those blue eyes of his. Actually it was amethyst colored, but he'd never admit to knowing about ninja dyes. His hair was long enough to reach his waist, but was tied in a ponytail. His skin was also a shade lighter than he was used to. At least he wasn't as pale as that Snake Dude. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a green Celtic spiral symbol in the front. Three, spirals with the lines they are made of meeting in the middle. He was also wearing blue shorts, and blue ninja sandals. He sighed. Now that he thought about it, he detected something that became a common occurrence.

A memory block.

Jackie doesn't like Naruto playing dirty, so she separated what he knows between his in-universe knowledge, and out of universe knowledge. He already knew that he can't act on things he's not supposed to know, but it never hurt to be prepared. It could be compared to trying to recall the events of a book you read 2 years ago. You have a general idea of what is going on, but if he tried to abuse specifics like trying to find powerful summoning contracts that he should know the location of, or trying handseals to a technique he shouldn't know even existed then he would fail.

He still had everything that only required some thinking about to figure out, or could be acquired by rumor however. So for example, he knew about elemental manipulation, and that Kazekage has three children, but Naruto doesn't know any wind techniques or how Kazekage's children look like.

Now that he knew his situation, it was to time examine things that weren't there before. He concentrated on what he knew about himself, and recited the answers to himself.

His name was Torune Uzukima, he was found in the orphanage along with his birth certificate on the October 11th. He didn't have any friends, definitely none that joined Ninja academy with him. Seeing how the only real way to earn money was being a ninja, and he was talented enough for it he decided it was where he could shine, maybe even find out about his origins. A month ago a stranger bumped into him and dropped a piece of paper. Torune picked it up with the intention of returning it, but he saw that it was a letter with his name on it. He found out his origins, his real name, and that he was under a permanent transformation technique. He found out that he was one of two containers for kyuubi, his twin sister being the other one. The letter also warned him not to reveal anything to anyone or look for her otherwise bad things will happen. He saw the logic in that. Asking around for the 'Demon child' he heard whispers about would definitely be noticed. Armed with answers he was more determined than ever to find out about his family, and the mystery surrounding it. Because the entire story screamed 'suspicious'. And what better way to take the first step than the Ninja Academy where his sister was bound to turn up.

Because today was the first day of school. A class of 30 would be created from the most promising students in all of Konoha. And if a jinchuuriki wasn't promising then he didn't know who was. He of course was one of those 30 people. His above average results being comparable to children with ninja clan training.

Today was the day. Today he would meet his sister.

Dattebayo!

* * *

He was in the front yard listening to Third Hokage's academy opening speech. Thanks dad, and screw you for leaving us in the orphanage, even if you thought that would protect us. He was suprisingly blase about finding out he had parents and that his dad was the Fourth Hokage, but he had a month to deal with this revelation. Now that he thought about it, if his parents are alive, then the entire situation made no sense. Something to investigate later. "Damn, I need to get a hold of a journal to record quests to do later" he thought. entry 1) Investigate the Kyuubi jinchuuriki 2)Find out why two children with powerful demons that could be turned into weapons were left in the orphanage. Actually he could do the first thing right now. He knew that she was supposed to be blonde with blue eyes, but that was about it. He didn't exactly have the chance to meet the village pariah, especially after she disappeared from the orphanage years ago. He tuned out the speech and waited for his change to find her.

* * *

He was in the hallway next to the his classroom for the next foreseeable two years. He caught a glimpse of a blonde girl arguing with a pinkette about something.

The blonde was wearing some strange cross between a purple top with a high collar that has no sleeves and reveals her midriff, short purple skirt, and bandages covering her stomach and legs like some sort of shorts, and white arm warmers. The pinkette was wearing a red dress. Enough said. I don't know a lot about dresses. I look once again at the blonde. Could this be her? He sure hoped so. As he approached he heard that their argument was about who some 'Sasuke-kun' liked better. Alright that's weird, I think I should know who they were or why they are arguing, but I never met them before in this life, so memory block. Nothing I can do about it.

"Excuse me?" I ask as politely as possible.

"You're stupid! Sasuke-kun likes my hair better! It's long and smooth, I spent 4 hours yesterday to make a good impression." Shouted the blonde.

"Eh hem" I clear my throat "Excuse me?" I try a little harder.

"As if pig! You are so fat Sasuke-kun would never love you. Maybe you should try with Chouji. You'd fit together perfectly you pig!" Shouted the pinkette in return. Ouch! Harsh. I don't know who Chouji is, but if it's the kid eating right now, then he looks nice. Like a panda. No need to be mean to him. "Why you-" The blonde looks like she'll strike the first blow, so I better do something. "EXCUSE ME!" I shout, and they turn to glare at me. I clear me throat and smile at them. "Now that I have your attention, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Torune Uzukima, nice to meet you." The pink one scowls, but the blonde makes a 180 in attitude and smiles. "Hi there. Sorry about her. Billboard-brow can be so annoying sometimes. I'm Ino Yamanaka, and this is Sakura."

Not her then. That's both disappointing that she's not here, and a relief that my sister isn't as annoying as those two. I hope. She turns to her rival "My my Sakura, this cutie came all the way to introduce himself to us. Why don't you take him, and leave Sasuke-kun to me." The pink haired girl's mood sours even further. Oh crap! She's gonna blow!

"As if! Sasuke-kun is mine!" She turns to the blonde. If they had lightning affinities, there would be sparks flying from their eyes right now. "Ehe he. I'm gonna go now." I smile and start walking slowly, and backwards. I don't want to come between two wild animals after all, as they resume their mating ritual for dominance over a male.

"Troublesome" I hear, but barely. I turn to the noise. It's a black haired pineapple head. He is wearing a gray t-shirt with a circle bisected by a line, and light green shorts. "What did you say?" I turn to him. "Troublesome girls." he sighs. "You know them?" I now fully turn to him. "Yeah." I wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn't. Ooookay. "I'm Torune Uzukima" I extend my hand. "Shikamaru Nara" He doesn't take it so I lower it. He didn't even open his eyes to look at me even.

I don't say anything more to anyone. I just wait for the class to start.

* * *

I sit at the farthest desk on the right side of the classroom podium. I can both lean back and feel the wall behind me, I can see everyone from the spot I'm sitting in, and I get the least light from the windows on the opposite wall. I look around the classroom, but don't find her. O Sister, where art thou?

I get a little depressed thinking about it, and don't pay much attention to the teacher. I feel like I should know him, and I do take an instant liking to him, but I worry too much about my sister to care.

"Alright class, my name is Iruka Umino." He writes his name on the blackboard, and turns back to the class. "I'm honored to teach the students chosen to enter the prestigious elite program for ninja. We will work hard for the next two years, and hopefully accomplish much for the village, both as ninja and individuals, but before we can do that, and start the first lesson which will unlock our chakra, and our ability to know ourselves, and better ourselves, why don't we start with some introduct-"

*CRASH*

Something impacted the closed classroom door hard. Then a thud could be heard. Then the door opened. My breath was caught in my throat and my muscles tensed, as my eyes almost bugged out, because right there, strolling into the classroom like nothing happened was the girl with twin blonde pigtails, blue eyes, tan skin, wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Oh and she had six whisker-like birthmarks on her cheeks.

"Hehe. Sorry I'm late" She rubbed the back of her head. "My name is Naruko Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the next hokage, dattebane!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, while striking the 'good guy pose'.

I lost consciousness right after the short purple haired girl next to me.

* * *

**And there you have it! The first hints that not everything went as Naruto wanted. Why are they both orphans? Why is Naruko hated? Why didn't they meet before? **

**Please read &amp; review!**

**See you next time on Shinobi: The Six Paths.**

**PS: The name doesn't mean anything I just wanted to name it like it was a World of Darkness rpg book**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**AN: In hindsight, trying to make a longer chapter and delay the release wasn't a good idea. Sorry for the delay, but I was busy with work. Who knew? I need to work for a living, and I can't write for money just yet. That's so sad.**

**TheIrishWriter: Now that I tried out writing a longer chapter instead of writing everyday, I can honestly say that I'm writing less because of it. I could do 10k word chapters, but that would probably push releasing something new to once a month. I just might do that, I don't know yet. Originally I planned for Minato to be the ruling Hokage, but then my story would take a turn for the stupid. In future chapters I plan on Naruto not revealing his identity. It would open a can of worms I'm not ready for yet. Besides he doesn't know how to yet. **

* * *

I snapped back to the land of the living when Iruka started shouting.

"You're late!" Naruko just started rubbing the back of her head, and walked over to take the seat next to... Sasuke? Weird. His name I can remember clearly. Maybe I knew him well in previous life.

"Hehe. Sorry Sensei I just woke up late."

That's strange. I just hope she's not into him. That would really make my graduation day that much funnier in hindsight. Especially if the events repeat themselves. I notice most of the girls are glaring at Naruko. I see the Uchiha is as popular as ever. What do they see in him anyway? Never mind I know exactly what makes them behave like that. I sighed. Interestingly enough Hinata next to me is also looking at Naruko, but she looks more sad than angry and is chewing on her lip. I dismiss that as unimportant.

"Now then. Everyone is here so we can begin. Finally."

He frowns at Naruko. Shakes his head, and then his face relaxes and he adopts a warm smile as he looks at the whole classroom, studying every student. Probably to remember them for later.

"Alright. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted."

He glared at Naruko causing her to adopt her goofy grin.

"My name is Iruka Umino, your teacher for the next two years. I am a chunin and I will be handling basic theoretical knowledge. When I read out your name I want you to introduce yourself to the rest of us. Let's start with Shino Aburame."

And so started the introductions. I know which people feel familiar to me. I can only assume they become important somehow down the road. My name is listed right above my sister. Alright. Time to play my first prank. A great opportunity to impress my sister and freak out some people. "Torune Uzukima" Iruka reads out my name. I stand up calmly, before adopting my pranking smirk.

"My name is Torune Uzukima. What I love most is ramen. What I hate is inequality. I want all people in the world to get along, and to do that I'll become Hokage! That's a promise! I never go back on my word!"

I practically shout this introduction. While what I said is mostly the truth it was carefully crafted to mess with everyone's head. I wanted them to see Naruto in me. The Naruto I would've become had everything occurred as the first time around. After all if you want to impress someone you tell them about your good qualities, or good things about your friends. No one has ever made a good impression by saying that they love to sleep in and have perverted thoughts about your hot sister. I look around for a reaction. Most guys reacted neutrally to me, while most girls were negative. Hinata beside me is wide eyed, and her mouth is open. Sasuke seems to think "What an idiot". Shikamaru's face screams "troublesome". But not Naruko, oh no.

She is outright shocked. Struck speechless, and that is often hard to do. I can tell she doesn't know what to think. On one hand I challenged everything she stood for. On the other hand she might think she found someone to understand her. She was jealous, angry, hopeful, sad, and happy. All those things and more. I know that because I used to be her.

"Naruko Uzumaki" Iruka reads after a moment to digest what I said. She's so eager to start she practically jumps out of her seat.

"Yosh! My name is Naruko Uzumaki, and don't you forget it, dattebane! My likes is eating ramen. I dislike waiting 3 minutes for ramen, and my dream is to be the greatest Hokage ever!"

She's even louder than me. Our introductions are so similar people start taking notice. And glare at her. Oops, people might think she copied me. Oh well. Even Sasuke who did his introduction before us is looking at her, and his staring is making her uncomfortable. I think. That or she's crushing on him. I hope it's the first option.

After the introductions are done Iruka presents himself to the class and clears his throat.

"Now that we are properly introduced, I would like to begin our lesson with a little speech I prepared for you."

He straightens his posture, and adopts a lecturing voice. He seems to have done similar speeches before.

"Welcome to Konoha's shinobi program. You should feel honored to be chosen for it. I know I feel honored to be teaching you. Whether by a special ability you have, or by the potential you've shown you'll receive the opportunity to be sorted into 10 specialized teams. Some of you might recognize the fact that the Sannin came from such a team. While Konoha teaches most of its ninja to become regular soldiers by going through boot camps, all of you will receive the opportunity to learn from the best. When you graduate, you will be put into 10 teams of 3 people. Your task will be to become the next generation of the elite, made to handle the most vital of missions. Unlike the military-trained chuunin in Konoha, your jonin instructors will pass on their specialized skills necessary for you to become the best at what you will be assigned for. From Search and rescue, to investigations, infiltration and even heavy combat, each team will be handling the most difficult of missions, but that is a long way away, so don't worry about it just yet."

He returns to his desk.

"Any questions?"

Tattoo face raised his hand. His name is Kiba if I recall correctly. Definitely an Inuzuka. "If we're so awesome, then why not put us on the teams now? What happened to them anyway?"

I wonder that myself. Something's not right. The entire village supports only 10 what I could call adventuring parties. To suddenly need replacements to all of them was weird. And they don't need the replacements now. We still have 2 years of school left.

"Konoha administration still needs to plan the most effective teams. They made a system for finding most balanced and effective 's why during each semester your abilities will be evaluated, as well as the potential for improvement. Team compositions. Specialties. How fast you improve. Those are the things we are looking for. Before we know that however we cannot make an informed choice. That's why as your instructor I will be observing you, to hopefully get to know you better and make all of you the best ninja you can be. As for the teams, right now some are unable to continue their duties, while others are needed elsewhere. Most teams were cannibalized by other departments. Anyone that could, joined the ANBU, the medic corps, or the T&amp;I department. Even the R&amp;D needs new people once in a while. That's why jonin most suitable for the missions are put together on temporary teams for now. In truth, this classroom is in fact the experiment in revival of the elite team system. Since a couple years ago Konoha police was dissolved, and their duties were taken over by the ANBU. There's something I'm not really supposed to say, but out of 30 people in this classroom, only half will be allowed to graduate to the elite teams and allowed to take special missions. The other half will probably be reassigned to other departments should they fail their graduation exam. Any other questions?"

Oh boy. Sasuke is almost shaking in rage at the mention of KPD. At least now I know what happened to the teams Kakashi failed. To my surprise Sakura of all people raised her hand.

"What are we going to learn?" Iruka smiles a bit and goes all lecture mode. Naruko however is probably thinking that if she learns an awesome technique it will become her 'I win' skill. She's actually not wrong about that. Rasengan anyone?

"An excellent question. I was about to go into that, so why don't we start with the intended lesson. The history, and use of chakra, and how we use it as ninja. You see, as the legends say there was once a man that wielded power so great, that he gained the power of gods, and stopped a great evil by imprisoning it in the moon. That man was the Sage of Six Paths. After defeating the evil, he decided to share the knowledge of what we now call chakra with the world. He wanted everyone to understand each other. That's why he created what we know as the rules. Everyone who ever used chakra, was bound by those rules. When someone unlocks their chakra, they gain an understanding of who they are beyond anything that could be previously imagined. Our every skill, our every quantity as a human being, is somehow incorporated in the rules. Everything that we are can be measured by numbers. When we will unlock our chakra today we will gain something we can call our first level, and therefore become bound by the rules. As we use this chakra it will become stronger, raising in levels and making us more powerful. In fact, let's unlock our chakra now, so that I can better explain."

Iruka raised from his desk and stepped in front of it facing the classroom.

"Now I want everyone to put their hands together like this."

He put his hands in front of him, and make what was called the ram sign.

"Focus your entire mind on this sign. I want you to imagine that you are combining your memories of your entire life represented by blue smoke-like cloud of energy, and the green energy generated by your bodies. Combine them in your bodies, then direct them to your hands."

The lesson went on for hours. Apparently getting it done was hard. And not only for me. Except for the clan kids. Of course their parents showed them how to do it. Sigh.

Finally after three hours I managed to feel something. Like a voice speaking inside of my mind. I saw a scroll. It had my name on it. My eyes inside of my mind slid downwards to read this scroll's contents.

**Torune Uzukima level 1 student HP 100/100 CP 100/100 exp 0/100 SP 100**

That's it? I honestly expected to know my entire life story from my character sheet. Where are my perks? Flaws? Stats? Skills?

"Everyone get it yet?" Iruka looked around the classroom for anyone who still had difficulties."By now you should receive a vision. It should tell you something about yourself. Can anyone tell me what that is?"

Sakura had the most eager expression one could ever witness in a child. Hear hand was raised so high, I'd say she was in danger of dislocating something.

"Yes Sakura?" Sakura responds with her almost textbook definition, or as close to one I suppose. "We saw our scrolls of character, also commonly referred to as 'character sheets'. Using chakra our bodies can now withstand injuries that can kill anyone else, that is called hit points, or abbreviated to HP. We also have CP or chakra points, which tell us how much chakra our bodies still have. We now have the ability to instantly quantify and put into numbers both of those things. Should our HP drop to 0 we will die, and if we use too much CP we will hurt ourselves, and possibly use HP in place of CP risking injury, or death."

Iruka nodded. "Thank you Sakura. That's correct more or less. The truth is a little bit more complicated than that, but everything said so far is correct. Now can anyone tell me what exp is? No? Anyone? Well then. Exp is abbreviation from experience. Many things influence this statistic. We don't know yet what experience is exactly, but what we know is that as we do something noteworthy, or important we will earn exp points, and if they exceed a certain point we will gain a level, and improve our abilities. However, this doesn't include trivial things. Winning a battle with an enemy usually gives a lot of experience points, while a delivery doesn't give much, maybe even nothing. The thing about experience it seems, is that by accomplishing something as a part of a team, every team member shares the reward equally. Our 4 man squad system was created to balance out team power, and sharing of experience points. You might also notice SP. SP means speed. Every time interval that we call a round we gain action points equal to our speed. You will find that someone who gains 1000 AP first tends to move first. Doing something uses up those points. The more time a task takes the more AP it uses. The rules make it so that everything you intend to do will be finished just as your AP reaches 1000, and you will then be able to take a new action. This only comes up in combat situations, so it's mostly irrelevant when you're doing mundane things."

The rest of the lecture was relatively basic, and I could already guess most of it. Turns out, as our level increases, so does our insight into our statistics. We should be able to know everything about ourselves by level 12 or maybe even sooner. The 'character sheet' was divided into 9 sections:

**1- The Person:** Name, biography and what they are and what they do. Also their basic statistics of HP, CP, Exp, To-Hit, Damage, Equipment, so on and so forth. The statistics you need for most common actions are under here for you to find quickly on the first page.

**2- The Way:** This is where things get weird. This section is divided into Nindo and Bushido. Every other level I get to improve this section, by earning a level in a job. For now I am a student, but in the future I might choose to be a puppeteer, or a strong fist master. Each level of a job gives bonuses, like for example

**[Avenger]** +10 hand to hand(Uchiha style) per level, +100 to brooding per level.

At least that's what Sasuke would get I imagine. It's not like I can see his character sheet.

**3- The Energy:** Divided into three statistics of Yin, Yang and Control. Or Mind, Body and Control if you prefer. Pretty self explanatory. The better you are at one type of energy, then you're better at skill governed by them. Body helps with fighting, while Mind helps with things like illusions and healing. Control is for general use, combining the two energies, and reducing complexity of performing some techniques.

**4- Techniques:** Divided into Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu and Iryojutsu. It was however commonly known that people in clans have access to Hijutsu in this section, and everyone that handles weapons often pretty quickly unlocks bukijutsu. I'm pretty sure there would be other unlocks in this section, but I have no Idea what those would be.

Ninjutsu are the skills of using elemental affinities and manifesting effects, and shaping chakra into something tangible. Control helps best with ninjutsu.

Taijutsu are techniques that deal with improving the body using Yang chakra. Increasing speed, transforming your body, and delivering the pain with a touch all fall under taijutsu.

Genjutsu are techniques that focus more on intangible effects. Started out as only illusions, now every skill that doesn't improve the body, or manifest some sort of chakra construct falls under genjutsu even if the name didn't change. For example reading someone's mind, implanting a feeling, or a vision and even telepathy fall under genjutsu governed by Yin chakra. While mostly underused I think with proper imagination this skill is the closest to reality warping as you can get.

Improved by all three energy statistics however is Iryojutsu or medical techniques. Manipulation the body to heal itself, regeneration over time, and similar things fall under Iryojutsu.

The hidden statistics Bukijutsu and Hijutsu are governed by different energy statistics, depends on the skill really. For example using the kunai as a conduit for electricity might use Yang and Control, but using bug swarms falls only under Control.

**5- Affinities:** The five elemental affinities. There isn't a more self explanatory section. The better you are at one element the easier and more powerfull the techniques.

While you can learn them all, trying to divide your points five ways, is bad for obvious reasons, unless you know how to make it work.

**6- Attributes:** We have six attributes, and they are Strenght Perception Luck Intelligence Agility and Charisma. If there was Endurance I could spell SPECIAL with that. But there isn't a stat like that. At least I don't think so. I have a memory of hearing a rumor about hidden attributes like Intuition and Appearance, but it could be wishful thinking by some girl thinking she could improve her App stat by leveling up. Hopefully I find out if there are hidden stats like that.

**7- Hand signs:** We actually can't improve these by leveling up. They are improved by doing them repeateadly. Being very good with a hand sign decreases use time, and improves skills using that sign. Being very good can even eliminate use time to zero, therefore being able to do sign-less techniques. for example each level of the ram sign will reduce use time by 20 AP, per use in a technique. So a technique that needs the ram sign performed twice will have it's AP cost reduced by 40.

**8- Skills:** Our mundane skills just like signs are improved by doing. Things like cooking and crafting go here.

**9- Techniques:** The final section, and the last to be improved by doing instead of leveling up. Techniques are first learned, or invented, then we declare we want to use them, then we do the hand signs. That's how it works. The effectiveness of Techniques just like Skills is determined by adding all relevant stats together, for example tree walking would be something like **[Tree walking technique]** Cp cost 20/minute - (0.5 * Control) Use time (passive, activation time 100 AP)

My head almost exploded with the information. If nothing else trying to exploit the system will make for interesting two years.

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**AN: Sorry about the week long delay. I know I said I would update every day, but it was back to work and before I knew it I had no more energy to write. Oh well, at least I'm here so you know this fic isn't dead. Also sorry for exposition. I know not everyone likes it. If you don't like a wall of text just glance at it once, and continue forward. That's what I do when I want to get to the juicier parts.**

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**First explanation of the system. What do you think? I know that before the fic is finished the system will be so fleshed out you will be able to use it with your friends as a regular tabletop. No fic logic, no narrative saying the hero has to win. Just stats, and the author rolling EVERY. SINLGLE. TIME.**

**I can almost imagine the fun when Naruto fails on something I desperately wanted him to succeed.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The mechanics of the game however? All mine, so if you use it with your buddies you have to send me a story how that turned out. Got it?**

**AN: Kinda confusing point in the story for me I think. I try to write every day, but I'm not entirely sure how professionals do it so I'm extremely winging it. I know how the world works, how the characters work, what challenges they can face, but putting it into an epic tale that would clench your gut in a feeling of awe as you read breathless to find out if the heroes make it out alive, or wait in anticipation on the next update? Not a clue how to do that. First story ever written remember?**

**SO PLEASE READ, FAV, FOLLOW, AND REVIEW!**

**Solomon07: For everyone that might be curious about the alias Naruto uses. While it's true it's not a full anagram, I tried to make the name meaningfull, just like Naruto means fishcake, and Menma is some sort of bamboo ingredient, Torune means Tornade, which is both as close to an anagram I could get and as close to the meaning Naruto could be which is maelstrom. I really like coincidences and relations like that, I think I might be the Riddler's(from Batman) relative, or something.**

**TheIrishWriter: I'm sensing a but about the Character scroll. Naruto is not going to be gamebreaking by any stretch. After all I will extend the same courtesy for exploitation to his enemies, but yes it's fun to munchkin. A fic in which Naruto is a roleplayer that doesn't even consider doing that would be the first of it's kind, as well as plain baseline Naruto with a couple of numbers tacked on. I wouldn't hint at hidden Attributes for no reason. They are goind to take a while to appear however. Naruko is Naruto of course, but considering the fact that I have a terrible memory, have no time to rewatch/reread Naruto to make her stick to normal personality there are bound to be changes. Drastic ones even. Which I've already hinted at. Clothing change is a given in every single rpg ever, because only challenge runs invole running around in starting clothes. As for bloodline I think I'd have to pull one out of my ass, so no idea yet how to give her one, or even if it's necessary. So it's probably going to end up as something akin to "Uzumaki family bloodline", while Torune will have a bloodline from his grandfather, that he may, or may not find out how to share with Naruko. God forbid a jinchuuriki with a good bloodline exists, it would be worse than Green Lantern Bruce Wayne. the answer to Naruko/Naruto is in this chapter.**

* * *

Torune was both excited to explore the power he unlocked, and annoyed that the lectures that took the teachers six whole hours could be summarised in half an hour tops. At least that's what he retained from the lessons. He had a nagging suspicion that school might be an inefficient use of his time. He would however hold back his million ideas that needed testing. Maybe school already has all the answers, maybe not. He would just have to wait.

Meanwhile he was rushing through the crowd to find Naruko. It was the first step on his quest. He wasn't sure yet what the quest was, but he knew it involved them both.

Scanning the flood of people meeting with their parents, pairing up and getting ready to go home was pretty difficult. Never before was he so thankful for orange to be unfashionable than now. He spotted her leaving the grounds at a sedated pace. Eyes downcast, with hands in her pockets.

Deciding to find out what was bothering her and cheering her the one way he abosolutely knew how Torune decided to turn left on the crossroad, then run forward until he cut her off. Still got it. Even if he didn't have his brilliant prank-making skills, the layout of the village was his down to the last insignificant detail.

He struck a pose with his legs spread his left hand put in a fist on his hip, and right hand pointing straight at her. His face adopted a stern look. "Hey you!" He shouted.

Startled she broke out of her brooding and grimaced. "What now? Someone doesn't like the demon goind to school now?" she thought. She was already considering where she was and how to get away, but she also needed to see who was shouting. Instead she was surprised to see the strange guy from before. The one who also wanted to be Hokage. She hoped that maybe they could be friends. Apparently not.

"Yes you! You said you liked ramen right? Let's go!"

What.

She was caught off guard by that. At first she thought he would try to bully her, but now she didn't know what to think. What's ramen got to do with anything except being delicious? And what did he mean by "Let's go"? Did he want to fight for the right to be the only one to like ramen? In that case there was no way that she would lose!

"What are you waiting for? Let's go eat some ramen! I know a great place that serves ramen, so come on!"

Now people were staring. Gaping even. Some idiot kid wanted to eat ramen with the demon. What was going on. Someone had to save him from his mistake. An older man walked up to Torune and touched his shoulder.

"Where are your parents kid?" He asked.

"Oh. I'm an orphan." Torune replied off-handedly not keeping his eyes from the girl.

Well that explained it the old man thought. Many parents could educate their children in that kind of stuff, while this kid had no one. Better keep him from trouble then.

"I see. You should stay away from that girl. She's nothing but trouble. You'll only get hurt if you get close to her. She's a bad person, you understand?" The man tried to explain as well as he could. After all he wanted to help. He thought the boy would listen. You should listen to people that know better.

A couple of meters away Naruko was observing the entire exchange. Great. Someone want to take me out to ramen. **Ramen** people! This doesn't really happen, unless it's the Old Man. And just like that she'll suffer the heartbreak again, right after the one she had right after leaving school. This had to be her record.

"Really?" Torune asked like he wanted to believe that. Here it goes. She braced herself.

"Awesome!"

Wha?

The old man was schocked. No one. Absolutely no one reacted like that before. Everyone just accepted she was trouble. Hmph orphans. If that kid had parents they surely would beat his idiocy out of him.

Torune ran up to Naruko and grabbed her hand and started to run, while dragging her with him.

"What are you waiting for? Ramen won't eat itself! Let's go." Her mind went blank. So she just followed him.

* * *

When the duo entered Ichiraku's Torune led the silent girl to a seat.

"Hi! Miso ramen please!" He then turned to Naruko "What would you like?" She didn't look up, but quietly responded with a "miso"

"Okay. Two miso then!" Teuchi looked at them both. It was an odd sight to see his favourite customer here with someone other than Hokage. He said nothing other than "Coming right up!" however.

"Why." Naruko said softly. Torune barely caught that. "Hmm? You said something?" He looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" She said louder this time. His expression was still questioning. "Why what?"

She looked at him, angry. "Why drag me out to ramen? Why didn't you listen to that guy? Don't you know who I am?"

He "hmm'ed" and put his finger on his chin and his brow furrowed in a thinking expression. "You like ramen, and I like ramen so it was an obvious choice. I hardly knew that guy. He was actually kind of creepy. You know what they say. Don't talk to strangers. And I know who you are. You introduced yourself in class didn't you?"

She got wide eyed and her mouth opened. "I don't even know you!" She almost shouted that out.

"Oh? We're classmates for the next two years, and then we'll be put onto teams. As far as I'm concerned you're family at this point."

Her throat clenched almost painfully. And she got an odd feeling in her chest. She put her hand on her heart, and gripped her jumpsuit there.

"What? But why?" Her voice got small again. He just shrugged.

"Why not? I'm an orphan. Everyone left after school with their families except for you, so I thought we should hang out. I always wanted a sister by the way. Oh hey, look! Ramen is here. Itadakimasu!"

She didn't have a response to that. And she didn't want her ramen to grow cold either, so she just dug in.

* * *

They left the stand in silence. She was still looking at the ground, but was happier than before. He was humming a tune. It was getting dark, so he thought they should be walking together. It seemed appropriate.

Naruko was a maelstrom of emotions. She didn't know what to think. For the second time in one day Torune made her feel that way. She was so consumed by thinking on it that she didn't notice when she bumped into someone, and fell on her butt.

"Hey watch it!" It was a man. He was reeking of alcohol. When he turned around he saw the "Demon Whore" being helped up by a boy her age.

"Well well well. It's two kids. And would you look at that? There's nobody around. How about you apologise by getting on your knees bitch! I'll show you a good time." He leered at her. He made a grab for the girl, but the purple haired boy caught his wrist and sneered.

"How about I bust my foot up ass!" The boy shouted, but got a punch to the stomach in response.

"And how about I just beat you two up!" He turned to the blonde girl, and delivered a powerful punch to her face.

Torune rose quickly and shouted "Hey! Leave my sister alone!" then went to tackle the man.

"Oh she's your sister? I didn't know. Even better." said the drunk then pulled out a knife from his pocked and quickly stabbed Naruto.

"Torune!" Screamed Naruko, witnessing the stabbing, as the man pushed the boy from him. He rose and turned to the glaring girl, not noticing her eyes were turning red.

"Now to deal with you." The drunk man was advancing on her position while holding the dripping knife. He was interrupted however by sounds of people approaching.

"Shit. You got lucky." The man then turned and ran away as fast as he could. Naruko was relieved, but then remembered about her friend, and rushed to his bleeding side. She kneeled next to him and held his head in her lap. Then, she started tearing up.

"Are you okay?" She asked in between sobs.

"I'll be fine. Lucky we unlocked HP today eh?" She released breath she didn't know she was holding.

"You idiot. You didn't have to defend me." He opened his eyes, and looked right into hers. They the exact same shade of blue.

"But I wanted to." He closed his eyes again, and then Naruko heard the approaching voices. She was startled, and thought that if someone saw her like this, they would assume she did it. She had no choice, and grabbed Torune in a bridal carry and lifted him.

"Did you mean it? When you said I was your sister?" Torune was surprised she was so strong. Who knew. She certainly didn't seem the type as she ran the closest path to her appartament.

"Absolutely. That is if you want to be." He spoke without hesitation at first, but then got quiet like Naruko earlier. She thought it was cute. Or at least it would be if he wasn't bleeding at the moment.

"Yes! Yes I want to be your sister!" She exclaimed happily through her tears. This time of happiness.

"I'm glad then. And so very tired." He closed his eyes and began dosing off.

"Torune!" She shouted in panic and started sprinting as fast as she could.

The last thing he saw before he lost conciousness was an update on his character scroll, surprisingly

**You've unlocked your bloodline!**

**[Tengan] Level 0**

_Many generations ago, an Uchiha rejected his curse. When his beloved died, he refused to let go of the love that drove him. Instead of succumbing to hate, he decided to celebrate the time he had with his love. After all it is the secret of the Uchiha that their love is their greatest strenght is their capacity for love. The Uchiha by rejecting the Mangekyo Sharingan mutated it, turning his hair gold, and eyes deep blue, giving birth to the Tengan, and became the founder of the Namikaze._

_Fueled by positive emotion the first step is unlocked by love for a relative_

**Level 0: You learn skills 10% faster**

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**AN: There you have it folks. I'm kind of rushed at the moment so I won't leave a long note other than:**

**Please Fav &amp; Review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: The usual. Don't own.**

**AN: Gah I wanted to write a bit more since I had a free day, couldn't do it. Trying to write as a form of curing procrastrination is a weird journey ot be sure. I don't get all those people that churn out 10k words day in day out. 300k novel in 3 months, when I can only write only 1000 words a day and it takes me an hour. Gah. So frustrated sometimes. Kids, stay in school and pay attention, because when you turn adult and you have to get a job life turns waaay less fun.**

**Passed 1k views a couple of days ago, we're on 1540 now woohoo! As always, please fav and review, help make this story popular. If you have a community then add the story to it, please.**

**Guest: Thanks? I guess?**

**Soundion: Actually, only after your review did I realise that Tengan was supposed to aid in techniques as well as skills. Whoops. Gotta fix that in later chapters.**

**TheIrishWriter: Honestly the drunk was unimportant, but if they wanted to find him for quick xp if you know what I mean then they could. Tengan has nothing to do with Sharingan other than it evolves, has skills that directly counter sharingans and is an eye technique. In fact every Uchiha is overeliant on Sharingan, but Tengan is more along the lines of neat support skills, rather than "I win" that the sharingan sometimes is. Naruto's identity is probably going to be revealed after chuunin exams. I don't see how I could deal with this before then. You might have an idea why from exposition in this chapter.**

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Naruto opened his eyes when the first stray rays of sunshine hit his face. He didn't recognize his surroundings at all. That definitely wasn't his bed.

He felt something on his back. A pressure and warmth. And he was shirtless. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly. Then agonizingly carefully he began to turn his body to face the source of warmth, already suspecting what he might find. He was correct. Lying right next to him, pressing her front to him was Naruko dressed in her pajamas. Some would be shocked at this, and start screaming and protesting, but he could see how things turned out like this, already having a workable theory. Besides he wasn't uncomfortable, and this wasn't really unwelcome. Deciding that he doesn't have anything better to do at the moment, he chose to watch Naruko sleep for the moment. She really looked like an angel right now. Unable to resist the cuteness any longer he raised his hand and draped it across her back, then brought her closer into a hug. She was so warm, and he was so comfortable that he thought there was nothing more perfect right now than going back to sleep. The conditions were perfect.

Later Naruko would wake up from the most confused dream of her life. Yesterday her heart was broken. Again. She, like most other girls had a crush on Sasuke, and she decided that she had to ask him on a date. But, when he said she was annoying, and when she was chased off by his two biggest fans she just had to sulk on her way home. Then, out of nowhere comes a boy, and declares they're going for ramen in front of the entire street. Nobody ever did that before. Everyone stayed away from her after their parents say she's nothing but trouble, and he was told the same. However he declared that it was awesome. Awesome he said! It was mind boggling. And then he defended her. Said he wanted to be her brother. She didn't know what to think. The one thing she wasn't however was completely idiotic. She found something, some sort of opportunity for what she always wanted and she would take it. She would hold on to it like a lifeline and never let go. But what about Sasuke. She loved him of course. It was love, right? Maybe when she became genin she would be placed on a team with them. Then she could have both.

Subconsciously she snuggled closer into her brother's embrace.

They stirred awake almost at the same time. Both fluttered their eyelids open, their eyes meeting their mirror opposites. And then she jumped out of bed and screamed.

"Kyaaa! Who are you? What are you doing in my bed?!"

She pointed at him. He just lifted himself with his elbows, revealing his almost shirtless state. The only thing protecting his boy-modesty if he even had it were bandages going over his now non-existent wound from last night.

"Why don't you tell me? Last I remember you were taking me somewhere sis."

That brought her to a halt, and her body stiffened. She stared at him as if she saw him for the first time in her life. She drank in his features. His flowing amethyst hair, his round face, his sparkling blue eyes, his skin tone a bit lighter than hers, his gorgeous bandage covered body. Wait. Like a lightning bolt from nowhere her entire body turned into a wreck of nerves that was an embarrassed teenaged girl. After all she slept with him in the same bed, she was supposed to be embarrassed about it right? But then she remembered how nice it was to wake up with him. Then she remembered. He wanted to be her family. That made her smile briefly before she frowned. He got hurt protecting her. She felt guilty about it. If not for her he wouldn't be hurt, but even when she called herself selfish for being happy that he did that she couldn't help but promise to herself to accept him as long as he wanted her. And she never went back on her word dattebane! It was eerie. She met him yesterday, but things escalated this quickly. It was just who she was she supposed.

"Hey. Are you okay, I didn't upset you I hope. I'm sorry."

His voice broke the silence. She looked up from her glaring at the floor while being somewhere else, and saw genuine concern. No hate, no disapproval, no desire to ignore her, just concern. She was touched by that. That was a rare thing to see for her.

"No. I remember now. I brought you here didn't I?"

Her eyes began moistening and her voice cracked as she recalled her desperation from the previous night.

"I wanted to get you help, but I was scared. I thought that if they saw you with me they would assume that it was me that hurt you. Instead I brought you here. I'm so stupid. What if you died?"

She then cried in earnest. Through her sobs she didn't notice how he got out of bed and closed his arms on her back, hugging her and bringing her face to his shoulder as she unloaded all her emotions unto him.

"It's okay. I'm not even hurt anymore. I already heal fast, and combined with sleeping in bed and having chakra a little knife wound is nothing really."

She was relieved. Although she did notice the fact that he said he healed fast. She did too, but never knew why. It was one more thing that connected them.

"Here. I'll show you."

He ended the hug and took a step back as he started taking off his bandages. She was still worried that he was hurt, but soon caught herself admiring him as she saw he was unhurt. She never got to see a boy shirtless before and she liked it, even though she never wanted Torune to know that. As he was removing his bandages she caught the sight of a diamond shaped tattoo on his belly. It was very small, dark green and above his belly button.

"I saw that yesterday. What is that thing?"

He was confused for a moment before she pointed to the tattoo.

"I don't know really. I suppose it's a seal, but I don't know what it does. I hear Tsunade of the Sannin has a similar one on her forehead."

He looked at his stomach. While he only knew about her existence and appearance, Tsunade of the Sannin wasn't wiped completely from his mind only because what he knew was supposed to be common knowledge. He frowned. He knew she could tell him what the seal on his stomach was, or why he felt that she was important to him and a large piece of something he needed was locked, and she was the key to unlock it. He wouldn't be surprised if she was his and Naruko's mother. Certainly the shade of her hair was similar.

"The who?"

Meanwhile Naruko was at a loss. She didn't know anything about the Sannin.

"A famous legendary ninja. One of the Sannin used to teach the fourth Hokage."

Her face lit up, her worries forgotten for the moment.

"That's so cool! Maybe they can teach us! I'll learn their awesome techniques and be the best Hokage ever!"

She exclaims starry eyed as she considered all the scenarios of her being taught by the most powerful ninja from Konoha. Torune just smiled at as he went about the room looking for his shirt.

"Unlikely. All of them are outside of Konoha at the moment, otherwise we would hear about them."

He replied, finding his bloodstained shirt discarded on the floor. He went to put it on, but was stopped by his sister by a wrist grab. Her delicate fingers were smooth and gentle. All of him knew that this touch felt right and wanted for many more to come in the future.

"Don't touch that!"

She raised her voice slightly to berate him.

"We'll have to throw it out. I don't see how we can salvage it. Besides, should you be moving right now?"

Her voice was in a high pitch now.

"You could still be hurt!"

He just turned towards her and smiled, giving her an eyeful of his chest. She just couldn't keep her eyes above his neck for some reason.

"Don't you know? I didn't listen to yesterdays lesson that well, but I certainly remember that now by having chakra we have something called HP. You know what they are right?"

She nodded.

"As long as they remain above 0 then we're fine. Unless the wound hit something important, then we're either dead or not. And sleeping in a comfortable place makes us heal faster now. The wonders of chakra I suppose."

She nodded again. That made sense. Perhaps she was worried for nothing after all, she thought. Then she remembered that he was still shirtless and very, almost uncomfortably close to her, and her face got hit with increased flow of red cells, in other words she blushed up a storm.

"Hold on. I'll get you something to wear."

She didn't wait for his acknowledgment, and just walked over to her pile of used-but-still-clean clothes in the corner of her bedroom and bent over, her hands searching for a shirt for him to wear. He watched her, waiting, wondering what kind of shirt she had for him. He hoped that it wasn't pink at least. He loved bright colors as much as Naruko, but tended towards darker colors for practicality. He didn't wait long as she handed him a white shirt with a red spiral at the center. He accepted it with a thank you and put it on. It his size. Uncanny really. Boys tend to be taller, but he was kind of short. He hoped to grow later in life. Who knows, it just might happen. The fact that he was wearing a girl's shirt wasn't that big of a deal, even with her being a girl, ninjas tend to mature earlier in life, and they were closer in development to 13 year olds. The shirt wasn't even loose in the chest area. His sister had really small breasts. Her chances of being anything bigger than A or B cup as an adult were near zero. She could always henge herself into some kind of idealized 'Sexy Technique' he supposed. He never got why girls tended to be jealous about size. Boys almost never are. Now that he thought about his old Sexy technique he noticed that Naruko looked almost nothing like that. Her form was thinner, leaner, more girly than his sexy version. She would never have overexagerated breasts. Heck, she could be used as an example why lots of chakra wasn't automatic to great body. If he was honest with himself she wasn't the most jawdropping girl in class. Her face had some masculine features, leaning toward androgynous, but he couldn't help but think that to him, and only him she looked like the cutest thing ever. The rest of the morning was spent at a more relaxed pace, as the siblings realized that while rude, not being in class wasn't a world shattering event, and they aren't going to be visited by angry teachers demanding an explanation why they weren't in school. They had a breakfast consisting of cup noodles, her favorite. They played for a bit, seeing how she never had someone to play with her before. But eventually it was his time to go. He was a guest after all. As he turned to leave, he was stopped once again by a delicate hand grabbing his wrist.

"Hey, where are you going?"

He turned back to see Naruko looking at him a bit sad, not understanding why he was leaving so suddenly.

"Oh! You know, back to the orphanage. I live there you know?"

She bit her lip and glanced at her feet shyly.

"Don't you want to stay here?"

She spoke softly so that he wouldn't hear her if she was standing just a little bit farther away.

"I don't want to intrude. It's your place and I already have a place to live."

She then got a crazy idea. Deliberately adopting a shy, hurt look into what she once heard was called 'puppy eyes' she began to get her body closer to his making him back away, bumping into the door with his shoulder blades.

"Maybe you could move in with me? Isn't that what family does? Didn't you say you wanted to be my brother?"

Her face was so close to him that their noses almost touched. Unfortunately for her he was immune to her cuteness, but didn't hold it against her, so he just put his hand on her hair and patted her head.

"I could, but don't you think that it's too fast to be moving in together? We only had one date!"

His grin got so wide it could almost split his cheeks in two. Maito Guy would be proud. Meanwhile Naruko blushed and shoved herself off of Torune.

"Idiot!" Then she relaxed once more "I know I can trust you. I can feel it. Besides we're going to be best roommates ever dattebane!"

Overexcited Naruko struck again. She would be heard by all her neighbors if she had any. He just chuckled.

"Alright then. This is going to be awesome dattebayo!"

Torune couldn't help but join in her excitement. He wanted to tell her more, but without proof it would just be stupid to try. He tried to release the transformation after he learned about it, and he knew he had a tattoo on his belly, but he couldn't do the first and had no idea what the second was until now. Soon he could tell her, but in the meantime he didn't want to come across as crazy. In fact things couldn't be better. It was like a ridiculous stroke of luck brought them this close. He took that as a good sign. The following couple of days were something of a blur. Naruko and Torune got inseparable. She would get into her usual pranking antics, and he would encourage her after asking out Sasuke didn't work, or she was hit on the head after that. At least she had a hard head. Which was both good and bad. He decided that getting to know his classmates was important, so he tried with all of them, unfortunately almost none of them wanted to interact with Naruko, and only about 8 of them did that somewhat rarely. Torune thought that the 8 were way ahead of the curve in class. After a bit of investigating *cough* gossiping *cough* he found out that those people were from ninja families. Sakura wasn't that much ahead of everyone, in fact she was something of a teachers pet with incredibly good grades, but no creativity at all. All of them except Sakura had techniques passed down by family members. Hinata even was a daughter of clan leader. She was incredibly shy however, and got into some sort of seizures whenever she was near Naruko, or Torune mentioned her. Strange girl.

Of course Torune had a secret weapon of his own now, but it was kind of frustrating. He didn't know how to activate it's active abilities if any, didn't know how to train it at all, and didn't have a convenient family member to do those things for him. He was conflicted on whether or not he should tell Naruko about it, but decided against it for now. It wasn't that visible, and until he had something to show for it other than his increased ability for learning also impossible to prove. In the first month of school Naruto got so frustrated one day that he decided to not pay attention to the lessons any longer. He noticed how they were common skills that, while useful were kind of ridiculous to focus on, at least in his eyes. The only two classes he payed attention anymore was the one that taught math and physics, and the other being the medical. On the others like common knowledge, culture, politics, history and many more he just did mathematical equations. If he was right, then the next two years of classes will make all of them so competent in those common things, that they would have a near 0% chance of failure while using them, plus some basic combat skills. That was outright unacceptable for him. All this time wasted that could be used for combat skill training. So in every single damn class he did math. Politics? Don't pay attention, solve math. History? Who cares, calculate stats. Infiltration class where they teach you to blend in and such? Pay only enough attention to know how to do it on your own, then think how you can do it more efficiently. It was also a very annoying time for him, because while he got announcements on his character scroll that his skills increased, he also didn't know how high they were, as he was still level 1, and that information would be given to him at level 7. At least every single hour of every day that wasn't spent with Naruko was in the various libraries looking for clues to how the rules worked, or talking with people around Konoha. As he was doing his daily predictions and planning his future skillset, he was wondering why he was the only one doing that. It was like these people had lives outside of getting powerful. Torune on the other hand was completely serious business. He knew that even now he had to get stronger, because dangerous people aren't going to wait for them to grow old enough to have mid life crisis before threatening world peace. At least it was always like that in stories. If he had to sacrifice basic skills for awesome combat potential, then no problem. He was brought out of his borderline mad scientist behavior by his favorite hand in all the world on his shoulder. He removed his nose from his notebook and straightened out his previously hunched over back, and looked confusedly at Naruko.

"Yes? What is it?" She just smiled at him sadly.

"You don't have to do this anymore."

He didn't understand. Did she mean that he shouldn't do math anymore? With the world literally running on math that would behard.

"Do what?" She smiled again for a bit before hugging him briefly.

"Pretending. I know you study hard, I always see you writing in your notebook, but you get as bad grades as me. Don't worry, I won't be upset if you're the best in class and I'm the dead last." He could see right through her fake smile. She says she won't be upset, but he sees that it kind of hurts that no matter what she tries she isn't as good at all the boring subjects. It was like it took her twice as long to learn what others learned, so she sometimes took time off for pranking to not bother with learning anymore. Besides it was kind of obvious the teachers didn't like her.

"Oh that? I actually don't know the answers on the tests for real. What you saw me do was doodle to pass the time, while not listening to the teacher."

She was shocked. Her entire face in a comical no-iris completely white eyes, square mouth for a moment. Damn comedy genjutsu. Always making a scene.

"What? But why would you do that? That makes no sense. You always rant about wasting time."

Her voice got raised to a small screech. Thankfully they were on a break after the class ends and before another began, Torune just didn't notice and remained in his seat.

"That's right. What I'm actually doing is designing jutsu."

If she was surprised at the revelation previously, this she took as if she found out she was having free ramen. Extremely surprised, but in a good way.

"You can do that? But we haven't learned a single hand sign yet! We don't have any way of using any sort of chakra at all. How are you doing this?"

He just smiled like a cat who got the canary as the saying goes.

"You'll find that I can. While all of our classmates probably are a couple of levels ahead in many common skills, I do nothing but math. I don't know for sure, but if I'm right, then imagining how a technique will work, what I want to do with it, and how can all be designed without any sort of ability to actually do that technique. For example I could say I want a technique that shoots water in a straight line. I have no idea what hand signs I'll need for it, how efficient it's going to be, but because I saw something similar, I know inventing it won't be impossible. In fact I know I have at least one level in **[research]** and in **[inventing]**. I don't know all my skills and have no way of checking them until we become genin, because frankly it doesn't look like we'll be having any experience points, while in the academy. I'm doing something important Naruko. I'm planning my entire my entire ninja style, before I even begin learning it. I'm not going to wing it. I don't have a clan that would help me with that, and even if I had I probably would invent something new for myself anyway. Planning this stuff out will help me avoid wasting even a single moment on things I'll never use, and combining things into a greater whole so that I can be the best at what I do."

Then he looked away and blushed a bit at a memory.

"To be honest I had help coming up with this by this upperclassman girl that wants to learn every single weapon. Her name was Tenten, if you want to meet her sometime I can introduce you."

At first Naruko had stars in her eyes as he explained his plan, but then her demeanor changed as it took a dark turn.

"Oh? An upperclassman girl? Was she pretty?"

He coughed and got out of his seat and quickly grabbed his things as he bolted for the door.

"I'll see you at home okay? Bye."

Naruko chased him outside.

"Hey! Answer me! You can't leave we still have classes!"

* * *

**There you have it folks. Finally. After a week. Sigh.**

**A couple of things I want to clarify if you're confused. The reason I'm not writing everyone's stats every damn chapter is that I don't want to bother because they would be changing rapidly. It is a school after all. **

**Don't diss Torune's and Naruko's relationship. There's a reason for that and it will be revealed in future chapters, but you are right to be suspicious. As you should be in every single fic that Naruto manages to bed a woman he knows for 15 minutes and then they proclaim their eternal love for eachother. At least until the next girl joins the harem.**

**Don't worry this isn't an incest fic. At all. I just like having fun with that. But Naruko is in the pool of possible love interests. It would just take more effort for Torune to get with her if he wanted to, than every other girl combined.**

**Naruko and Sasuke? Not going to happen and you know why.**

**Naruko and Hinata? Hero worship nothing more, but still possible. I am fond of yuri somewhat.**

**Team placements? Until I had the idea that Torune will be the dead last I literaly had no reason to put together Naruko-Sasuke-Torune team that wasn't pulled out of my ass. As such every single possible team combination is going to be discussed in future chapters.**

**It's going to be another 5k-10k words for the exposition arc to end. Probably. Don't know for sure yet.**

**Also the realisation that I'll have to calculate every damn enemy, and what each stat gives you by level is going to be absolutely dreadful.**

**Just dreadful.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any characters you might recognize from various crossovers that might pop up, any OC's however you can use freely, just message me that you did.**

**AN: I have no excuses, other than I had a writer's block out the wazzoo. Like you couldn't believe. Mastery of the self is a curious thing, you get back home from work, and you don't feel like writing, you think you'll manage to write something in the evening, so you'd rather read some fanfiction for 6 hours, but then you're tired, so you stop caring about that, go to sleep, that kind of stuff, and before you know it, you've written absolutely nothing. This phenomenon is called procrastrination, and this fanfic is about stopping it. Chronically bad mood doesn't help either. Doing something despite feeling a certain way is called discipline and is the single secret to success. Want to loose weight? Don't listen to your emotions, just do it. Want to master a skill? Do it even if you don't feel like it. Success is nothing more than a simple discipline repeated every day. Failure is the opposite of that. It's a simple bad habit repeated every day. Get into Zig Zigler's works if you want to know more. I also recommend Slight Edge books.**

**I understand now, that this writer's block came about writing myself into a corner. To progress I had to have a complete understanding of how my system will work, which I didn't have at the time of writing. Not only that but I made some mistakes that would mess up later chapters. Also I realized that I needed to write some fluff chapters before graduation day, and that's where the problems started. I'm going to be transparent about how I write this fic, so that I can get input into that as well as the quality of writing itself. I understand most people will skip author's notes, but I'm also hoping to find people that won't as the popularity of this fic increases. **

**The process itself: I just do it. There's no plan no preparation no backup. I started this fic from a blank page and a plot bunny. I had the first inkling of how the system would work, but no hard numbers, so I started writing this fic. Quickly I realized what a bad idea this is so I stopped writing this fic for a bid, and wrote some one-shots on different series that I didn't publish. The problems are thus: with no idea how to balance a system, or which dice system to use, I have a sense that something will go wrong real fast if I want to keep the consequences of characters actually rolling for their actions. Simply put, being a game designer is hard even if you have experience. In fact, I've designed about 3-4 trading card game systems, and 2 board games more or less successfully to the point the ruleset would be playable and fun, but a tabletop rpg? this is the first time. And the worst thing is the realization that I know many systems, and I can't make this one too original, or it'll become unpredictable to me. So I have the challenge of choosing which system to base this one on. Is it going to be D20? D10 like World of Darkness ones? Gurps? I'm also limited by familiarity.**

**This chapter is designed so it'll fix up the mess I wrote myself into. I have a policy of not doing rewrites, and not lingering too much. The first one has the problem of making me stuck, so the plot won't progress and from there I can only expect disgust at myself from trying to make a polished something when I know this work will never be perfect. The second has the problem of fatigue. If I write 100k words before Naruto reaches wave arc then either the work will become too long, and potential readers will rarely finish it, or I won't finish it. I don't see myself writing this thing in 5 years time. Do you?**

**TL;DR Get a plan, but not too far ahead, and finish writing the system.**

**TheIrishWriter: As someone who stuck by me and reviewed every single chapter, I can only say sorry. I don't have an excuse as to why I had a writer's block, and 2 weeks is not too long of a hiatus, not with a fic of this lenght, but still. I can't better myself if I don't do it every day can I? For everyone that doesn't skip author's notes, and because I have a lapse of judgement, and because I don't care if you don't here's the spoilers.**

**SPOILER! EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T WANT TO BE SPOILED DON'T READ THE NEXT THING YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.**

**Actually it's not that big of a spoiler. If you're intelligent you'll find out soon enough. Minato died, but got reincarnated. He's with Naruto and Naruko in the academy. Introducing even one person to the character pool creates an imbalance that needs to be adressed. How do I do it? With a staple: Sai. Now I need one more for one more team. Who do I choose? De-aged Minato. He doesn't remember his past life, but his reincarnation is tied to his bloodline, not in the sealing. Remember how I said Tengan counters Sharingan?**

**SPOILER END**

**On Tengan skills and various stages my first notes (so obviously subject to change since I created the bloodline half a year ago):**

**Stage 0: Slightly incresed learning and intuition, better planning skills, shows up as blonde hair and blue eyes  
Stage 1: Acquired by friendship, eyes start sparkling a richer shade of aquamarine, hair looses some colour in some places, similarly to Rogue from X-men. Flood of ideas, optimised thinking and Sherlock-like Analysis skills.  
Stage 2: First kiss. Platinum blone hair, elongates a bit, slight glow to the eyes and they swirl witha shades of blue (Rasengan like eyes). More of the same skills from previous stage. Clues on how to act in social situations to give happiness to yourself and others, a brighter attitude, increased inspiration in battle (ideas how to best use the tools that you have to defeat any opponent)  
Stage 3: Graduation from Wizard (if you know what I mean). Increase in hair lenght temporarily while in use, hair turns silver. Pupils turn blue, eyes glow. Feeling of emotions (Like a Kyuubi jinchuuriki, but also works on positive emotion). First dojutsu exclusive jutsu:enslavement. By placing the victim in a tsukuyomi-like world the tengan user brings ultimate bliss to the victim. Only people who are hateful, and with great willpower are able to resist loving the one who used the jutsu. (Read: it won't work on any antagonist from Akatsuki because those people be crazy murderers.)  
Stage 4: The anti-mangekyo. Obtained by marriage vows, the user obtains mangekyo's counterparts. Anti-tsukuyomi: Break any genjutsu. Anti-Susanoo: neutralise any defense, so that your other skill make it through. Anti-Amaterasu: Heal any injury except death. They are twice as draining as regular mangekyo.  
Stage 5: The anti-EMS. Obtained by parenthood. Anti-izanami and Anti-Izanagi. If you're smart you'll figure it out.**

**Unlike Sharingan users Tengan doesn't grant unique abilities, so no anti-kotamatsukami.**

**About the seal: There is no point in revealing him too early like that if she lost her memories anyway, so I'll keep to Tsunade unlocking it. You might notice Naruko is a composite character of Naruto and Sakura. Wouldn't want to waste an opportunity for drama, so I'll probably unmask Naruto when it's inconvenient. I mean Naruto could show her the letter at any time, but he didn't because he doesn't want to upset her. So now that I think about it He'll probably show her after graduation.**

**ShoYungRai: Thank you very much. I hope to never dissapoint. Please stick by the story. Spread it to other people who might like it. The updates are going to either be days apart, or weeks if I'm feeling particularly stuck. If I don't post something in a month or 2 then most likely something is wrong.**

**On to the story!**

* * *

_Timeskip: A week before final exams_

"Hey Torune! Whacha doin?" Naruko asked in a sing song voice, as she poked her head around Torune's shoulder. In front of him, on their shared desk (truthfully only he used it, she never did her homework) were all his notes. And charts. And lots of scribbles everywhere. Chaos mostly.

"All my notes I managed to gather. I'm trying to figure out how the rules of chakra work, even before we become genin. I've managed to get some basic info.  
I have managed to find out about most of the rules, but some things are still a mystery." That's right. Torune's hobby was number crunching.

That was essentially the only thing he could do reliably. He didn't have access to anything else. Genin don't get to learn jutsu. Unless they invent them themselves of course. By now both Naruto and Naruko had a couple of original jutsu to their names. The most horrifying one was Naruko's Sexy Jutsu: Bishonen. The horror. _The horror._ But that was a story for another time.

"But why are you writing this stuff down? We already know this stuff. Thanks to you everyone knows this stuff." Naruko asked. About a year in Torune was outraged by being deliberately held back in the academy, and brought together some of his classmates to find a way to improve as quickly as so called prodigies did. Sure they learned basic skill needed by everyone, but he wanted raw power. Prodigies, and students during war time were spoon-fed experience by either their clan, or in the academy, to develop as quickly as possible. They were also quickly promoted. Normally a jonin is in the range of levels from 50 to 80. But during war time people like Kakashi Hatake were promoted to Jonin when being around Chunin level range. The results were a higher death rate, but the survivors level up quickly.

"You know why. I want everyone to be the best they can be. Not only myself. This book will bring about the understanding of how Chakra works. The ninja world is horribly backwards to me. Instead of sharing knowledge it is passed only onto apprentices. Instead of flowing freely it is hoarded. Everyone in the village could prosper if only everone share. Imagine the inuzuka clan with dog summons. Akamichi with Uchiha jutsu library. Might Guy's fighting style taught to anyone that wants to learn. But noooo." Torune's tone turned to sarcastic. "If we let the knowledge out, then other villages will learn this too, and then it'll be chaos. Chaos I tell you." He let out a sigh. "The arms race of bigger, badder jutsu is frankly ridiculous. Instead of inventing new technology, the ninja world invents new techniques, and then hoards them. They ignore the fact that inventions come from somewhere. Anyone can rediscover something that people want to keep hidden. And because of that stupidity the ninja world goes nowhere, but I'll change it!" He rose to his feet, and his voice rose impassioned. "I'll revolutionise the ninja world, so that all of mankind will benefit." He struck a cool pose. "Dattebayo!" The coolness went out the window. Just like his sister he was prone to a verbal tic of spouting a nonsense word.

She smiled. Her Oni-san was so cool sometimes. He had this charisma about him that made everyone want to believe in him. And that had nothing to do with his high charisma score which he told her about.

"I believe you can do it." She hugged him from behind, her voice soft and her breath smoothly tickling his ear. They grew really close together. He was her only person in the world. Even the old man hardly visited anymore. The teachers with the exception of Iruka nowadays hated her. She chased after Sasuke, but he never acknowledged her. She hung out with Shikamaru, Chouji and Shino at school, but never outside of it. Without him she would be a loud brat that needed attention, she imagined. She knew that instinctively and rewarded him with touching. He was always eager to reciprocate. In fact she clung to him often more for her benefit than his.

Meanwhile he frowned internally. He felt guilty for not telling her the truth, but he couldn't. As ridiculous as that sounded, he knew instinctively from his eyes that it would end poorly. Until the time came that he didn't feel it anymore he would remain silent. He trusted his instincts.

"Thanks." He replied quietly. He turned around and gave her a brief hug. "Anyway I was getting off topic. These notes are my ideas about team placements. I have made theory about how I would place people in teams if I were Hokage. Anyway I'll tell everyone about them at lunchbreak."

She looked at him with genuine curiosity in her eyes. "But why would you do that. You can't exactly choose who goes on what team, right?"

He nodded. "Maybe, maybe not. Remember Tenten? She gave me the idea, as usual. I'm preparing myself so that I'll choose the correct path, regardless of what team I'm placed in."

How could she forget. Even though she was only an acquaintance Tenten was someone Naruko genuinely liked. A strong and smart young woman, meeting her was something Naruko won't forget for a long time.

* * *

_"Where are you taking me?" Naruko asked as she was dragged by Torune, with his hand in hers, fingers wrapped together tightly._

_"I'm going to introduce you to Tenten like I promised I would. I know you'll like her." He grinned at her, and continued dragging her in the hallway. She just decided not to resist anymore._

_Soon enough they were in front of Tenten. She wore a pink sleeveless qipao-style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons as well as dark green pants, and standard blue ninja sandals. Her hair was done up in two buns, giving her a bear-like look. She was sitting on the ground and with her back against the wall. She held a scroll in her hands, her eyes scanning the text and her face showed that she was concentrating very hard on figuring it out. She rose as soon as she noticed the siblings approaching._

_"Hey Tenten!" Torune waved at her with his left hand, his right still holding Naruko tightly._

_"Hey Torune. What's up? Who's this?" She looked from his smiling face to Naruko's nervous one. In the future she would be quick to befriend strangers, but right now Naruko was nervous that Tenten knew who she was and would dislike her for it. However Tenten's eyes showed no recognition._

_"This is my sister Naruko. I wanted to introduce you to each other." He grinned. He just had a feeling they will get along just fine._

_"You have a sister? I thought you are an orphan?" Tenten blinked in confusion at this revelation. Torune just blinked sheepishly._

_"We adopted each other. We were separated at birth, I'm telling you." Tenten blinked again and looked from Torune to Naruko and back._

_"Now that you mention it, you two do look alike." She shook her head, and stuck out her hand. "Anyway, I'm Tenten. Who are you?"_

_Naruko brought out all her courage and stuck out her fist. "I'm Naruko Uzumaki, and I'm going to be Hokage, dattebane!" _

_Tenten giggled. She liked this one already. "Oh yeah? I'm Tenten and I'm going to be the strongest kunoichi ever, got it?" They both smiled at each other, their eyes glued in a glare of friendly rivalry. Naruto decided to interrupt before they challenge each other to a contest. Konoha had enough of eternal rivals for now. Maybe after Kakashi and Guy retired he would encourage it._

_Soon emough they were chatting like good friends. They talked about anything they had a passing interest in. Tenten would mention crafting, and Naruko would talk about all the traps she used in her pranks, which lead to talks about how to use their skills, then to imagining different cool techniques that they would specialise in. It was a fun talk and very educational as well._

* * *

"Tenten is very brilliant, and a goldmine of ideas. Who would have thought that she would be a weapon throwing specialist?" They both sighed. Ever since she got her own team they didn't see each other that much, since when she was in the village they were in the academy, and when they were out she was on missions, or training.

"She has her own team now. I can't wait to have my own." Naruko said. Torune chuckled briefly. "And I'll be able to see how much my theories are worth." He thought briefly of something. "Although if I ever say anything like: They laughed at my theories! They called me mad! But I'll show them! I'll show them all! Then please beat me up ok?" He hammed it up with his wild gestures then laughed maniacally, before returning to normal. Naruko couldn't help but laugh with him.

"Sure. I'll beat you up then drag you home, and put you in chains. You can't help me become Hokage when you're busy showing 'them', right?" She smiled at his antics. And she was supposed to be the fun one. Torune never failed to make her smile.

"C'mon! We're going to be late." He said after glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand. Soon they were out the door and on the road to the academy.

* * *

It was lunchbreak. Sitting together were Torune and Naruko, as well as Shikamaru and Chouji. Instead of eating lunch however, they were gathered around Torune's scribbles. Except Chouji. But he didn't count since he ate all the time.

"Troublesome. What are you doing Torune?" Asked Shikamaru. Normally he wouldn't be involved with anyone troublesome. He preferred to hand around Chouji ant that was it. However Torune never gave up. He pestered him every day for months. Shikamaru was content to ignore him, but Torune pointed out it would be less troublesome to hang out and listen to his mad ranting. So here they were. Listening to his monthly ranting. You could almost set the clock by his rants.

"In about a week we're going to have a final exam, and a week after that we're going to be placed on teams. I have compiled an analysis of each potential team. I've excluded all the known teams." Torune explained, his eyes never leaving the notes, his hands never stopping from rearranging them, putting them in some sort of order only known to him.

"Known teams? How in the world do you know that stuff?" Asked Naruko. She was very surprised. She knew that Torune was very well informed, but this was kind of mind blowing.

"Oh? I figured out how the teams are set up. I didn't figure it out on my own. I asked a cool genin about it and I was able to figure out the entire system from that." Said Torune, remembering the gening who gave him the info.

* * *

_Every day, for 2 hours Torune would wander the streets chatting up passerby's. It was a strange method of gathering intel, but surprisingly effective. Sure, he didn't go about it like a ninja spy should, but then again he wasn't a spy, just an academy student, and what he was looking for should be common knowledge. Occasionally he would visit the library. It lacked any techniques, just theory, but a high Intelligence character like him was able to learn the basics contained there, to invent his own techniques._

_This day however he was passing by the hospital. When he noticed a teenager with Konoha's headband he couldn't help himself. He just had to see what this person knew. Ninjas are naturally suspicious people, but this one's equipment identified him as a genin, so he hoped that someone old enough to reach adulthood, but still remain a genin would be a valuable source of information. He flanked the genin, and spoke up in a cheerful voice that conveyed how harmless he was._

_"Hi there!" Kabuto almost jumped at the unexpected greeting. His mind quickly analyzing the situation. Whatever the silver haired boy expected to happen today, an academy student wasn't it._

_"Sorry for interrupting, but I was hoping you could help me. I'm gathering information. If you could answer some of my questions I would be grateful." He smiled genuinely at Kabuto, who stood there slack jawed._

_A kid was outright asking him for information. Kabuto just couldn't wrap his mind around that. Either this kid was an amateur or stupid or both. Or even worse. He was a genius that knew what he was doing. Or ridiculously enough, this kid knew who he was. The last one seemed too ridiculous, so Kabuto didn't even break a sweat._

_"Who are you?" He asked. His voice conveyed how ridiculous he thought this situation was._

_"Oh, sorry. My name is Torune Uzukima, nice to meet you. I'm an academy student, and I'm looking for information about being a ninja. I don't want to be left in the dark about how the entire system works, and seeing how you're a genin yourself, I thought you can help me." Torune explained as quickly as he could. He was better at diplomacy nowadays, but back then he was terrible at it. Taking Kabuto's thoughtful frown as rejection, he quickly added "In exchange I can find out information for you. Or run an errant. How about it?"_

_Kabuto smirked. This was a golden opportunity, and he wasn't a person to waste it. He was now sure the kid was genuine. What he didn't know was that Torune and Kabuto were very similar. Kabuto a master spy, able to assume any mask, and Naruto, a man who lived 20 lifetimes. Naruto had perspective on a lot of stuff. His habit of finding out things by asking about them didn't come out of nowhere. Living to see 300 will do that to you. Even if most of Naruto's memory was gone, his knowledge of other worlds erased, and his personality rewritten, some ideas that worked on those worlds were still in his mind, deeply buried._

_In the end the two would end up meeting often. Kabuto would subtly teach Torune about spying, his info card technique, information gathering and social skills, and even where to learn medicine when Torune showed interest in learing. In return Torune would give information back to Kabuto, in the guise of information gathering excercise._

* * *

"Listen closely now. The teams are assigned numbers on graduation, but behind those numbers are team specialties. Team 1 is Contryside Patrol. They roam the Land of Fire, actively looking for trouble. Team 2 is City Guard. They are assigned to the capital. Team 3 is Palace guard. Similar to Twelve Guardian Ninja, they are incorporated into Daimyo's guard. Team 4 is deep cover infiltration. They are sent out from the moment they graduate into other lands to assume civilian identities and act as spies. Team 5 are Hunter-nin in training. This is pretty self explanatory. Team 6 is research and development. They don't even learn combat skills, just enough to get by, but otherwise they are used for inventing techniques. Team 7 is the legendary All-purpose combat squad. Team 7 has legendary bad luck across generations. From the moment Konoha was founded this team produced powerful ninja, but something always happened to drive the team apart. Team 8 is the Scout team. A combination of fighting power and scouting ability, this is the team for behind the enemy lines reconaisance. Team 8 is the Investigation team. This one is about smarts rather than brawn, sent out to solve mysteries. Team 10 is heavy assault. No unnecessary abilities, just pure fighting skill." Torune paused to take in their reactions.

Everyone was looking at him. Knowing this much about anything like that was unusual to say the least.

"Wow, bro. That was amazing! So how are we going to be placed? Do you know that?" Naruko asked. She was nearly breathless from the display of Intelligence. She always thought that awesome shinobi with big exploding jutsu were awesome. This was outright mind blowing to her.

He nodded. "I do. And you know what? It's so stupid, it makes me want to weep." This comment definitely shocked them.

"What do you mean?" Asked Chouji.

"It's pretty obvious the entire class is split into 2 groups. The pretty average people, and the ones standing out. The first group is going to be placed on the first 6 teams, no doubts about it. I saw their grades, there is no other way to place them. The other group however consists of: Me, Naruko, You two, Ino, Sasuke, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Sai, Sakura, and that blonde girl with spiky hair, and heterochromatic eyes. What was her name? Minako or something?"

Shikamaru nodded. Despite being an orphan, Minako quickly rose to a high place in the rankings. She would be the top student, if practical skill would be counted fairly, and she had ninja parents. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

"Now that you mention it, she looks a lot like the Yondaime Hokage. Acts a lot like him too."

Then Torune decided to get on with his rant. "Anyway the way the second group is going to be places is outright stupid. Last year there was a new team 10, but that's it. The rest went to chuunin boot camp. This year we're going to get even worse team placements than last year."

"What do you mean?" Chouji asked. Finally getting into the discussion.

"What I mean is that this is what's going to happen: Team 9 is going to be a repeat of Ino-Shika-Cho, so that there is going to be a repeat of what worked. This is stupid, because people forget why that team was great. It wasn't because of the clan abilities. In fact this team is going to be so bad, I'm almost sorry for you two. No offence." Shikamaru nodded "None taken." He said.

"The team worked because your parents were good friends, not because your abilities go together. Sure, you Shikamaru and Ino can work together on investigations, and you Chouji can do well in a fight, but you don't exactly form more than the sum of your parts. Not to mention there isn't a single jounin I have info on that would be a great teacher to this team. I'd rank it at best C+. Next we'll have Team 8, which is probably going to end up being Kiba, Hinata and Shino. Going by what I know their sensei would be a Genjutsu Mistress. That's just a disaster in the making, for a couple of reasons. A jonin like that has nothing to teach to this team, she wouldn't even round out their skills as a team. Next is the fact that by putting 3 people with detection abilities in one team, supposedly makes a great scouting team, but in truth it deprives all other teams of this crucial ability. Then the combat abilities. Both Shino and Kiba command animals, so there's overlap there, but no synergy, both Hinata and Shino can reduce chakra, but they have no synergy with Kiba, both Hinata and Kiba are close combat, but they have no synergy together. And worst of all, They have natural ability to break genjutsu, and no talent for using it. If a genjutsu mistress is reduced to teaching genin who already know how to resist genjutsu to break them, then that's just sad. I'd give this team a B. Next we have Team 7. Normally this team would be the top ranked guy and girl, and the dead last of the class. Obviously that means Sasuke, but the girl is a different matter entirely. Top Kunoichi right now is Ino, but she won't be on this team, because she's already on team 9. Next we have Sakura. And that's going by the grades. The truth is that Minako is the best there is, but she won't be placed on this team because she's blind in her left eye, and a student with a disability is never going to impress teachers, no matter how good they are, because that's just how it is, and nobody cares enough to change it. As for the dead last position..."

He sighed.

"It's a ridiculous notion that better students will teach the weaker ones, but in reality it just weakens the team. But the truth is even worse than that. The dead last position is currently occupied by me and Naruko here at the same time, and because the ranks are assigned by examination grades and not so much potential and practical skills, the team is going to end up all weird. The team would be Me, Sasuke and Sakura. That would of course be a disaster. Us three don't get along, and that would break the team outright. With a competent teacher this team would be alright, but right after making chunin we would split apart, and there would be no more Team 7. There isn't anything wrong with this team outright, but knowing that there is only one viable teacher for Sasuke would change everything. It's going to be Kakashi Hatake. Sure it would be good for Sasuke, but the two of us would be left out, and then what would be the point of the team in the first place. I'd give this team an A with a good teacher, and a C with a bad one. I have no justification other than I have a bad feeling about it. Team 10 would be the rejects. Sai, Minako and Naruko, this team would be expected to fail and come back to the academy, unfortunately."

During his entire rant everyone was silent. Shikamaru was thoughtful, Chouji stopped eating, and Naruko lost her omnipresent smile. It was obvious to everyone present there were glaring holes in Torune's reasoning, but until the official word was presented, this analysis was the closest thing they had.

"So what do you propose?" Asked Shikamaru. Torune furrowed his brow in thought.

"That's why I made these notes. From what I came up, the best damn team that could be made is Sasuke, Ino and Naruko, hands down, but that would just make pretty bad teams other than this one." Everyone was curious why he thought this was the best team. On the surface this team didn't make any sense.

"Why this team? What makes it so great?" Shikamaru prompted. His mind was working overtime, coming up with an analysis of his own.

"Well, the abilities blend together, and synergise to the point that this team could become jonin in a very short time. It would require breaking so many laws to make it great however that it wouldn't even be funny. By teaching this team some kinjutsu I heard rumors about the rate of learning could be accelerated to the point of ridiculousness. The team would work like this: Naruko would learn the Shadow Clone forbidden technique, then learned and invented techniques on her own. Ino would then read her mind, and learn them that way. Sasuke would just learn them with his Sharingan. Essentialy this team would leech off Naruko's hard work, but like I said, this would require breaking so many clan laws and taboos that I don't really see it happening. For this years graduating class to reach greatness a couple of things have to go. First, the notion that placing weak people, and people who don't work well together is good for making balanced teams. It doesn't work that way, you just end up with bad teams. Second, placing people based on gender rather than skills, again the desire to make balanced teams is the same things that make them bad. Third, Disregarding how people can create something greater than the sum of their parts. Lastly, putting teams with inadequate teachers. From the rumors I gathered assigning jonin to teams has more to do with which jonin wanted which genin rather than actually optimising the teams."

Everyone took a while to think on it. His logic was sound in principle. Even if his predictions were wrong, the principles behind them were looking pretty good to his audience.

"Anyway if I was the one assigning the teams I would make sure to get the most out of what I have availble. The teams need to be balanced, yes, but they also need to be good. Team 9 would be Ino, Hinata and Sakura, with Kurenai Yuhi, the previously mentioned genjutsu mistress. The team is in my opinion perfectly fitted together. All 3 girls have the affinity for Yin chakra to learn from their sensei. They are not only able to learn the most from their sensei, but also occupy roles not confliction with each other. Sakura with her freakish strenght would occupy the melee taijutsu role. Ino would be mid ranged. Her ability to hold down opponents, would help Sakura to bring them down. Hinata would be their support. Always on the lookout for ambush, her skill with medicine would compliment the other two, and for a hyuuga she's pretty bad in close combat, so instead she would become the long range genjutsu type. In their assigned roles of investigation they have Hinata's eyes, Ino's mind abilities, and Sakura's book smarts. Not to mention I think they could compliment each other as friends as well as kunoichi. Being an all girl team, they will understand each other better. The two strong willed girls will bring out Hinata from her shell. They will compliment each other in skills as well as in personalities. This team is perfect. I give it an A+. Team 8 would be Kiba, Shikamaru and Shino. I know I said Kiba and Shino don't work well together, but Shikamaru would change everything. Your ability to hold things down would be invaluable for Kiba and Shino, whose attacks have a hard time connecting with faster opponents. Not to mention you would make a good team leader, being able to keep track and manouver Kiba's partner Akamaru and Shino's bugs. Now that I think about it, Sai has similar abilities to Shino. Shino could be replaced with Sai, and not much would change. I'd give this team a B+. Maybe even an A with Sai instead of Shino. Next we have Team 7. I really have got no words for this team. It's always goint to be Sasuke with Kakashi as the sensei. That sucks, because he's unable to teach anyone anything. Unless I'm placed on this team with Naruko. Then it's a different matter entirely. I wouldn't have a problem learning nothing from my jonin sensei. I would even prefer it. That would let me learn abilities from somewhere else, so that I can best fit the team. Probably as a medic. I also know Naruko well. I know how to teach her. She's really amazing, people just don't notice it yet. I think us three could become the next Sannin."

Unknown to him, shortly into his rant teachers gathered around them and heard the entire exchange.

* * *

**There you have it. I can't be sorry enough for not updating. I kind of hate this chapter, but it was inevitable really. By next chapter I need to comple the ruleset, so that's going to be borderline stressfull. If you notice any plotholes or mess-up's please let me know.**

**See you next time. Hopefully on 1 month anniversary. **

**PS if you're curious Minako is reincarnated Minato. If that wasn't obvious enough.**


	7. Update notice: Funeral

**After having a lot of work piled on me, leaving me tired and rather unethusiastic to write, I was going to write a chapter today, and what do I get?**

**My sister telling me my grandmother died, and I'm going to have to go away for the funeral.**

**Well, damn.**

**A drive one way is already 8 hours long.**

**As such I feel the story needs to go on a hiatus for while, I already contemplated that, but this is the clincher.**

**Shinobi: the Six Paths will return Jan 1 2015. I may or may not write one shots for other fandoms. Probably something with DC universe, Wormverse, or something like that.**


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